______ Vs Watchtower

You may have read of lawsuits brought against the Watchtower Society but you oftentimes only hear one side of the story, the side of the complainant. You have no doubt seen 'news' programs, such as Dateline, where accusation are made against Jehovah's Witnesses and their child abuse policy but you are rarely, if ever, told what was revealed in the court proceedings that followed after the program aired. And so, as opposers jump on the usual 'its a pedophile paradise' bandwagon, you rarely see an honest examination of the cases. And if the lawsuit is dropped or dismissed that is often lost in the witch hunt mentality and never reported.

The purpose of this chapter is not to attempt to determine if the accused molester in each case is guilty or not but rather, to examine the culpability of the headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses and whether the testimony and facts show the Watchtower Society to be negligent or libel as well as to see just how the courts handled the lawsuit filed against the Watchtower Society. We have tabulated a list thus far of cases that have come to their finish in court and will hope to examine each case as time permits and as information is available.

Ironically, it was Silentlambs founder, Bill Bowen, who said in a radio interview with Meria Hellar in April of 2002: "A civil lawsuit was filed against the Watchtower Society in January I mean July of this year, and others are stepping up right behind them. If they won't answer this problem morally, then we will answer this in the courts and let's see how they stand the litmus test of the United States justice system for what they've done for children."

This is by no means a list of all cases that have been brought to court against the Watchtower Society, but we can assure you that no cases have actually been won by the plaintiff forcing the Watchtower Society to pay millions of dollars as has been the case with other religions. It is just as Watchtower attorney Mario Moreno aptly put it, "So far the plaintiffs are not doing well." (Auburn Journal/January 19, 2004
By Ryan McCarthy)

Please click a specific case below if you would like to examine the other side of the story.